Jan Willem George van Haarst (1858–1926)

The first professional librarian who did not combine his office with a professorship. After Enschedé had left, it was dr P.J. Blok, professor of history, who became the librarian ad interim. However, combining the office of librarian with a professorship no longer proved to be possible. Therefore, Jan Willem George van Haarst was appointed in 1887. He decided on cataloguing the entire collection once again, but in a new way. The catalogue no longer appeared as a book. Instead, each title was written on a separate card, after which the cards were bound into booklets containing 150 such cards — the so-called Leiden booklet, named after the University of Leiden Library which had first applied this method. Because the collection increased rapidly, the library building dating from 1866 soon turned out to be too small. In 1898 an extension was opened, increasing storage space and the number of study spots. No portrait of Jan Willem George van Haarst is known to exist.